For those in-between fried chicken days.

Chuc Mung Nam Moi! Happy New Year!

When I was kid, a large part of my mother’s side of the family lived in Virginia. Our close knit Vietnamese clan would gather with great fanfare for the Lunar New Year. My cousins and I would line up to recite our new year’s wishes in our native tongue to my grandparents. Crossing our arms and bowing, we’d take turns, “Happy New Year! I wish you continued health, happiness and great wealth! May you live a long life!”

Ba Ngoai, my maternal grandmother, was always dressed in a beautiful silk traditional Vietnamese dress (ai do). Her gray hair pulled back in a neat chignon; her ears adorned with flat, round jade earrings with diamonds in the center. My grandfather, Ong Ngoai, wore a neat, brown wool suit. They sat together on comfortable armchairs in the center of the living room.

My parents, aunts and uncles flanked us with film and video cameras. They cheered us on when we made our wishes and received our prized lucky red envelope full of money. Occasionally, peals of laughter erupted from the adults when one of us flubbed a word—being second generation, our Vietnamese was, and is, less than stellar—or expanded upon the traditional wish, “… I hope you have great wealth so you can share it with me!”

These warm family gatherings always included mountains of food. One of my favorite Tet (Lunar New Year’s) dishes is Banh Chung, a traditional sticky rice cake filled with mung bean and pork belly, wrapped in banana leaves and cooked. It’s time consuming to make, and seemed to only appear during this time of year. My grandparents made ours in their small apartment kitchen. Ong Ngoia used square wood frames that he’d made himself to shape them. Large pots would boil for hours to cook the square cakes, steaming up their home.

My grandparents lived a long life, as we wished for them. They eventually passed, surrounded by loved ones, and the Banh Chung that they shared with us in my childhood passed with them. So, a couple of years ago, I started to experiment with different recipes I found online. The ingredients are simple: banana leaves, marinated pork, mung bean and sweet rice. I like mine with loads of filling. Most that you can buy are rice heavy. The proportions below reflect my preferences. I like to soak my rice in coconut water. It’s not traditional, but it imparts subtle flavor that complements the banana leaves.

Building the cakes is a little more complicated, so I’ve included step-by-step photos. You’ll find YouTube videos of people free-hand building them. Ha! I tried that; it’s not as easy as it looks. It takes a lot of experience and dexterity to achieve a good looking banh. If your leaves are too soft, the whole thing will fall apart before you can tie it or wrap it together. It may end up looking like a blob. However, I’ve found a good ‘cheat’ that will make your life much easier. I use a square container lined with foil. I hope it helps you as it’s helped me.

Our family has now expanded and scattered across the world, so we no longer have these large gatherings for Tet. But my cousins and I are still very close, and our daily conversations always return to food. Banh Chung is an important topic this time of year: Where will you get yours? Can you send me one that you made? Recipe?

This one goes out to my family, and especially my cousins. Although we’re passing out red envelopes to our own children now, I’m glad that our love of food always keeps our conversations going and our mouths salivating. Chuc mung nam moi! Wishing you wealth, health and happiness, and a belly full of Banh Chung!

The night before:

Rinse rice until water is clear, drain and in large bowl, soak in coconut water overnight

Rinse mung bean until water is clear and cover with water (water should rise 1″ above beans) in large bowl to soak overnight

Clean banana leaves by soaking and rinsing

Cut a letter size sheet of paper down to 8.5″x8.5″ to make template

Using scissors make 16 pieces (you’ll need 4 of these for each cake) of 8.5″ x 8.5″ banana leaves. Fold them down to 4.25″ square. Cut and additional four 3″ banana leaves squares. Dry with paper towels, wrap or store in plastic bag and refrigerate until ready to use.

Assembly

Note: I like to divide my rice, meat and mung bean into 4 even portions for each cake. I’ve tried figuring out cup measurements for each cake, but it changes depending on how long the rice soaks etc. I’ve accidentally shortchanged the last assembled piece before. This makes it a lot easier.

Drain rice completely and mix with salt and divide into 4 portions.

Drain mung bean and divide in to 4 portions

Divide pork into 4 portions, setting aside leftover marinade for use

Cut eight 18″ long pieces of aluminum foil

Line a 4″x4″ or a little bigger square cake pan or container (I use a square glass Pyrex style) container with a sheet of foil, lenght-wise

Unfold a banana leaf square and refold into a box corner like so:

Insert into foiled lined mold, lining piece up with corner:

Repeat for each corner until you’ve created a box. Pictured here with 2 corners:

Fill the bottom of the banana leaf box with 1/3 of 1 portion of the rice and push the rice with a spoon to the side to make a 1/4-1/2″ lip, while maintaining rice at the bottom to make an inset for mung beans:

Put 1/2 of one portion of mung bean on top of rice, leaving 1/4″-1/2″ around the edges

Top with portioned pork and 1/4 of leftover marinade (marinade and pork fat will help to flavor the mung beans):

Fill edges with 1/3 of portioned rice, scooting the rice with a spoon to make a little well around pork for mung beans:

Fill well and top pork with the other half of the mung bean, leaving a 1/2″ around beans for rice:

Fill edges with rice and cover mung bean with remainder of rice:

Top with a piece of the square leaf:

Fold in edges of banana leaf box and tightly fold foil over:

Invert over another sheet of foil and wrap tightly:

Tie cakes together with kitchen twine, string wrapped around once on each side (like a gift)

When all cakes are made, cover with water in your pressure cooker

Follow instructions for your cooker to secure cover and bring to highest pressure

Over lowest heat to maintain pressure, cook for 2 hours and 10 minutes

Follow manufacturer instructions to release pressure from your cooker

Pull cakes out with tongs, letting them drain for a minute and set on rimmed cookie sheets to cool for 2 hours

Unfoil and tightly wrap with Saran wrap, patting cakes back into square shape. Refrigerate until ready to serve

To serve banana leaves are removed and typically cakes are sliced and pan fried in a little oil (right photo) and served with Vietnamese pickled vegetables and a little fish sauce to dip. We’ve been known to eat them warm, an hour after cooling (left photo). Not very traditional, as the cake doesn’t hold it’s shape, but we love the soft, almost gooey tender rice and fall-apart fatty pork and the soft savory mung beans.

Lastly, a tip from my mother: wrap your knife in a layer of plastic wrap when cutting. Your slices will come out sharply cut and your knife easy to clean. Enjoy!

Praline pecan butterscotch oatmeal cookie! It’s a mouthful to say, but ooey gooey and delicious! If a cookie and a pecan pie had a baby, I imagine this would be it!

On a recent trip to New Orleans, we became addicted to Donald Link’s Cochon Butcher restaurant. We spent a week having lunch there everyday. How could we resist menu items such as Le Pig Mac? On the second day, I decided to try one of the their cookies. Oatmeal Pecan Butterscotch! OMG! One of the best cookies we’ve ever had!

I was immediately in search of the recipe. Alas, Google did not turn up a Donald Link or Cochon Butcher Oatmeal Pecan Butterscotch cookie recipe. However, I came home to a the new Milk Bar Life cookbook which contained Christina Tosi’s Grandma’s oatmeal cookie recipe. I used that as a starting point for my version of the cookie I fell in love with. With a lot less granulated sugar, but keeping all the brown sugar for the caramelley flavor and other tweaks: Ta Dah! A wonderful ode to the Cochon Butcher cookie.

Don’t even think of replacing the praline pecans with plain pecans. That’s what makes the cookie! The praline will turn into delicious goo when baked, you’ll see 🙂

Ever get a little ambitious shopping in the vegetable aisle and find yourself with produce that has to be used up ASAP? Well, I found some zucchinis and asparagus in my fridge today that needed to be eaten, but didn’t want to go with the old sautée stand-by. Then, I remembered a pasta recipe in Tyler Florence’s new book, Inside the Test Kitchen (which I highly recommend) that was squash-centric and used it as a basis for the dish below.

It turned out delicious and the execution was simple! The blended vegetables made a creamy, flavorful sauce that tasted decadent without any added dairy. The asparagus and pine nuts added great texture and flavor as did the basil and Parmesan. I used brown rice spaghetti to make it healthier, but feel free to use your favorite brand.

After two weeks of non-stop travel and eating out, we were craving something healthy. Don’t get me wrong, we ate good… Oh. So. Good! There’s nothing like southern food! That’s a story for another post. Recommendations to come soon!

I came up with this recipe a couple of years ago. I was challenged to come up with something for an elimination diet I was doing. No dairy, no eggs, no pork or red meat, no wheat, no sugar, no white rice …the list goes on. The idea is to not eat anything that you might be allergic to and then slowly reintroduce food groups. It wasn’t easy, but it forced me to cook out of my comfort zone and rely more on spices for flavor.

The recipe below came out of that period and is a mainstay during our hot Tucson summer and whenever we need a break from heavy foods. It’s flavorful and hearty. You won’t miss the carbs. It can be served hot or cold. I personally think it’s tastier at room temperature. Also, if you’re feeling lazy, buy the pre-cut pre-washed bagged kale from Trader Joe’s. Enjoy!

This dish is on my top ten most crave-able food list as well as being one of my cousin, Hiep’s favorites. His last response to my texting him a photo of the pot of chicken and dumplings I had stewing, “So, are you going to share the dumpling recipe or continue to torture me?” Alright! Alright! Here you go, Hiep.

I’ve experimented with several renditions of this classic over the years. The recipe below is by far my favorite one. This take elevates the standard boring chicken, gravy with oftentimes too gooey dough that passes as chicken and dumplings. It’s based on Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc Chicken and Dumplings Soup. I’ve changed the the proportions of the ingredients so that it has a thick gravy rather than a soup base and is heartier overall, but retained the flavors. Why mess too much with a master’s recipe?

I usually roast a large organic chicken in the morning, serve the legs for lunch and save the rest for this recipe. The best, easiest and most versatile roast chicken recipe is the Thomas Keller one posted here. Do use the best chicken stock you can get if you’re not going to make it yourself. I like Pacific Organic and surprisingly the Costco Kirkland Organic Chicken Stock is good. Also, I’d keep Wondra flour on hand in case you like your gravy even thicker than I do and extra stock in case the opposite is true.

One of the most memorable meals from our trip to Vietnam last year was at a restaurant called Cu Gach Quan (translates to ‘piece of brick’) in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). The company was wonderful: Billy, my cousin Michelle and her husband Vinh. The restaurant was eclectic, but authentic. The cuisine was familiar and delicious Vietnamese comfort food, served on charming mismatched hand-made plates and bowls, with little dipping dishes of blue and white porcelain full of nuac mam (Vietnamese dipping sauce) and soy sauce. Fried tofu with crunchy garlic was served alongside sautéed local greens, braised sweet and spicy clay pot fish, brown rice and what turned out to be our favorite dish of the evening: bo xao sa lat song or warm beef and watercress salad.

Hot, garlicky, stir fried beef served on top cool peppery dressed watercress with tomatoes and marinated onion slivers. Delicious! Since traveling to Vietnam every time we craved this dish was not practical, I questioned our waiter and promised Michelle I’d come up with a recipe replicating this dish for us. Below, you’ll find what I came up with based on our server letting us in on the main marinade ingredients: garlic, lime and fish sauce.

If you ever find yourself in Ho Chi Minh City, I highly recommend you have at least one meal at Cu Gach Quan. Be sure to go to the original. We hear it’s better. They’re so popular, they opened one directly across the street—yes, really! In the meantime, try this recipe at home. It’s perfect with a bowl of jasmine rice.

Mix first 5 ingredient together, stir in beef, allow to marinate, refrigerated for between 30 minutes to 2 hours

About 10-20 minutes before serving, in a small bowl, mix sugar, salt, pepper, lime juice and olive oil together.

Add onions to dressing. Do not let onions sit in marinate for more than 30 minutes, it will get too soft.

Toss watercress in onion dressing.

On a serving plate, layer watercress, then tomato slices on the outer edges of plate. The hot beef will go in the center of dish, on top of watercress. Avoid placing hot beef on tomatoes as they will get soft and lose their bite.

Heat canola oil in wok over high heat until very hot.

Add minced garlic, stir fry for 30 seconds.

Add beef with marinate and stir fry for 3-5 minutes or until beef is cooked through.

I was introduced to Milk Bar cookies a couple of years ago when a box arrived at our door as a gift. Individually wrapped in cellophane were cookies named Compost, Corn, Blueberries & Cream and Cornflake. These were familiar names for things such as muffins and breakfast cereal, but these were very exotic flavors for cookies.

Perplexed, Billy and I inspected each cookie carefully before tasting. “Hum, feels soft and chewy… What’s this on the ingredient list? POTATO CHIPS??? Huh? …” Well, we were sold after the first bite. All the flavors were strangely familiar and comforting. The Compost cookie was a perfect combination of sweet and savory. The love child of the classic chocolate chip and of any and all (it seems) the snack foods you could think of. Chips, pretzels, butterscotch, even coffee! The Corn cookie tasted like what cornbread would be if it were reincarnated as a dessert. We finished half the box in short order and froze the rest for special occasions.

When we ran out of cookies, I looked for the Compost Cookie recipe online and made a batch. I portioned and froze half the dough so that I could bake a few at a time in my Breville oven when the craving struck. After piece-mealing Milk Bar recipes from here and there, and finding that they produced cookies as good as the ones from the bakery, I decided it was time to buy the book…

Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook is a revelation. Christina Tosi, author of this book as well as chef, owner, and founder of Momofuku Milkbar is a mad, mad genius. The cookbook is full of wonderful desserts that could’ve come from the imagination of a child wearing a unicorn t-shirt on a Lucky Charms sugar high. Her monologues are friendly and whimsical and recipes exact—down to the gram—with thorough directions. There’s a whole section of what specific ingredients to buy, and where, as well as an equipment guide. A technique section: “the ten minute creaming process, or why milk bar cookies are so damn good.” Ms. Tosi is a woman after my OCD heart!

I’ve had a great time learning and baking from this book. It’s really inspired me to use unusual ingredients, to be more inventive and has improved my baking. Outside of a minor conversion typo—gelatin sheet to powder—which caused a runny banana cream pie and a loose batch of panna cotta (in book 1 1/2 sheet silver gelatin= 3/4 tsp. powder. Should be 1 1/2 tsp.), the Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook is a joy. I’d recommend to new and experienced bakers alike.